Wall Street Journal cites expert analysis warning tactic could shift military balance on Korean Peninsula; CSIS says conflict involving N. Korea or China would strain allied weapons stockpiles far more than wars in Europe, Middle East

North Korea said it conducted a joint strike drill involving long-range artillery and missile units on Sept. 12. KCNA reported Sept. 14 that "combined fire assault training by long-range artillery and missile subunits of Korean People's Army combined units at all levels was conducted on the 12th." [Yonhap]
North Korea said it conducted a joint strike drill involving long-range artillery and missile units on Sept. 12. KCNA reported Sept. 14 that "combined fire assault training by long-range artillery and missile subunits of Korean People's Army combined units at all levels was conducted on the 12th." [Yonhap]

North Korea's recent testing of combined drone-and-missile tactics could shift the military balance on the Korean Peninsula, Western experts have warned.

North Korea said it conducted a joint strike drill involving long-range artillery and missile units on Sept. 12, simultaneously firing four types of weapons — cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, multiple rocket launchers and drones. The exercise signals Pyongyang is accelerating the integration of its weapons systems by adopting swarm tactics that have proven effective on the battlefields of Ukraine and the Middle East.

The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday (local time) that North Korea has begun practicing swarm attacks combining unmanned weapons systems with conventional arms — tactics drawn from the wars in Iran and Ukraine — and cited Western experts as saying such multidimensional strikes could overwhelm air defenses that rely on costly interceptor missiles.

Rami Kim, a Korea senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London, said North Korea's growing drone capabilities, combined with its nuclear weapons and missile arsenal, "could change the military balance on the Korean Peninsula." If fighting broke out on the peninsula, Kim said, North Korea could add drones to its missile firepower to degrade South Korea's air defenses and raise the odds of success for follow-on strikes using far more powerful weapons, such as tactical nuclear weapons.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) warned that a conflict involving North Korea or China would place a far greater strain on US and allied weapons stockpiles than the wars in Europe and the Middle East. In a recent report, CSIS said "large-scale salvos of missiles and drones define modern warfare," adding that future armed conflicts would be decided by whichever side can produce the missiles needed for multidimensional attacks faster than its adversary.

Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the swarm tactics — variously described as salvo fire, saturation attacks and precision mass strikes — "will significantly change the calculus for air defense." Large-scale attacks involving waves of missiles and drones rapidly exhaust an adversary's defensive assets and expose vulnerabilities in existing defense networks, he said.

Military analyst Fabian Hinz said the approach aims to "create numerous potential targets in the form of small warheads and at the same time launch conventional ballistic missiles to overwhelm the enemy's air defense or missile defense networks."


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